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REVIEW: Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

Title: Claimed by Shadow
Series: Cassandra Palmer #2
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

 

My Rating:

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Blurb

Clairvoyant Cassie Palmer has inherited new magical powers-including the ability to travel through time. But it’s a whole lot of responsibility she’d rather not have. Now she’s the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her — and her magic—over to their side. But one particular master vampire didn’t ask what Cassie wanted before putting a claim on her. He had a spell cast that binds her to him, and now she doesn’t know if what she feels for him is real—or imagined…
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Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn’t likely to turn out well.

My Review

The Story

After refreshing the basics of the storyline and the characters’ background, the story speeds up quickly. It is fast-paced, full of action, filled with different kinds of supernatural creatures. You are only at the second chapter, but you already witnessed a battle with mages and the Graeae, a time-travel meeting with ghosts, with a past version of Mircea and saving his life, and some softening of the attitude of the always-sneering Pritkin.

Chance mixes supernatural and fantasy elements, Greek and Norse mythology, smartly borrows from classics and uses historical personalities and facts, and has some really special ideas, such as the magical, enchanted tattoos.

It would really be nice if the universe could stop throwing creatures out of fables, myths and nightmares at me. “There’s no such thing as gargoyles!” I said just as two of the little monsters pulled a cart out of the door and began tugging it down the hallway.

Cassie, Pritkin and Mac’s journey to Faerie is adventurous and very unusual. Even though it has a very heartbreaking momentum, regarding the future of Cassie it is very important.

The time-travels are thrilling, and give the opportunity for Cassie to show how brave and quick-witted she is. Furthermore, Ms. Chance easily presents secondary, even tertiary characters making the story more complex and impressive. I enjoyed the sensual aspects of vampirism, and seeing Mircea is always a pleasure.

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Characters

Cassie still can’t accept that she is the heir of the Pythia, and still hopes to pass over her Pythia powers to someone else. Finally she comes to the conclusion that embracing the power is the best she could do in the given circumstances. Her reasoning is convincing, logical, and solid, but she is the most unconventional Pythia of all time.

It’s hard to look intimidating in a sequined devil costume complete with pointed tail.

PritkinPritkin is lethal, stubborn, and morose as usual, but also a very handy ally of Cassie. Not to mention that he finally took off his shirt…

My least favorite war mage was heading across the lobby at a dead run. His short blond hair looked like it had been hacked at by a machete, and his icy green eyes were angry. Not that that was unusual: I’d never seen him smile, and normally considered it a good day if he wasn’t trying to kill me. Considering that he was wearing his usual knee-length leather coat, the one that bulged with concealed weapons, it didn’t look like today would be one of those.

Mac… My heart bleeds for him, but considering Tomas’ words, Mac’s deed makes sense.

Mircea… I loved when his passion burst through his collected, elegant surface. It is partly due to the dúthracht geis, but only partly, as the geis can’t create feelings, it only makes them more perceivable and stronger. I really look forward to seeing how he and Cassie will solve this ever-growing, more and more overwhelming situation.

Tomas 2 TNTomas… I like him very much! In Touch the Dark you got only glimpses of him, and only through his acts. Here, he gives some explanation, tells about his past, and shows real wisdom and comforting logic.

Billy Joe was fun as usual, especially after his embodiment in Faery. But I honestly felt for him when they came back to this dimension.

Casanova… I loved Casanova as he struggles to keep himself and Dante above the water. Or fire…

Myra is a spooky antagonist with her sweet, dollish appearance and evil, malevolent personality.

Agnes surely was a very capable Pythia, as even in her death she selflessly helps Cassie and never turns her back on her calling.

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All in all

The story is very exciting, smartly built and tricky, and it never lets you take a rest.

It is also full of humor! I really enjoyed Cassie’s narration, time-travel, the battles, the episodes with the Graeae, Casanova, the gargoyles, and all happenings in the Dante, especially the one with the zombie Elvis. 🙂

See my favorite quotes and my cast on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina, from quote 752 to 771.

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REVIEW: Four of a Kind by Kayci Morgan

Title: Four of a Kind
Author: Kayci Morgan
Genre: Erotica / Polyromance / MMMF
Goodreads 

My Rating:

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Blurb

Four stories. One romance. 

Blake and Leah have been friends for years, but Leah wants to get physical. 
Preston just wants a peaceful life, while Blake rolls in and turns his world upside down. 
Leah can’t stand her new coworker Conrad. But she also can’t keep her hands off of him. 
Conrad meets the woman of his dreams… and her two boyfriends. 

Polyromance. M/M, M/F, MMF and MMMF
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“People are far more complicated than they seem.”

My Review

Four of a Kind consists of four different narratives, told by each character’s point of view, in first person. It is as if you are sitting with them, and listening to them telling about the beginning of their relationship years after the events took place.

The story
Leah and Blake are best friends from second grade. After a bad date, Leah makes a move on Blake, and they establish an open relationship.
Later Blake meets Preston, and they feel a very strong attraction to each other. After a couple of months seeing each other, Leah wants to meet Preston too. Blake invites Preston over for dinner, and with that, the relationship of the three of them starts.
Suddenly, we are five years later, integrating Conrad into the relationship too.

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

Characters

I don’t like Leah. Her character misses intimacy, tenderness, grace. She is pushy, arrogant, and careless in her sex life.

Four of a Kind - Blake 2Blake is my favorite. His cheerfulness, humor, open-mindedness, and frankness are awesome.

Searching through the literary fiction section I found something I had recently enjoyed and handed it to him. “Fine, fine. I’ll read it and let you know what I think.”
A day and a half later he returned. “The characters were flat, the pacing was slow and the ending made me want to kill myself. Can we just have sex now? I don’t think I can take another of your top picks.”

– Blake & Preston

Four of a Kind - PrestonI like Preston, too. He is exclusively gay, but he is willing to have sex with a woman in order to please his lover. He finds himself in this relationship, his shyness disappears and he finds confidence, not only in the erotic sphere, but in his career too.

Four of a Kind - ConradYou see Conrad first from Leah’s viewpoint, and it is not positive. They are rivals at work, and as both of them are very strong personalities, they obviously have conflicts. For some mysterious reason, Conrad is head over heels for Leah. I adore his perseverance as he keeps asking her out over six months, and doesn’t run away even when he finds out that Leah lives with two another men. In his arrogance, Conrad’s first thought is to get rid of Leah’s boyfriends, but when he meets them, he is immediately captivated by the harmony of the three of them.

He smiled at me and introduced himself as Blake, extending his hand for me to shake. I immediately knew why Leah liked him. Other than being incredible beautiful, which believe me, I’d rarely say about a man, but it applied, he had this free open demeanor compared to her closed off bearing. He was the warmth to her cold. The emotion to her logic. Her other half. I was screwed.

He is straight, but he is curious, and soon discovers the advantages of having a man lover.

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

All in all

The story is great, but the writing style has its flaws, especially in the depiction of erotica and emotions. Here and there it’s a little bit dry, factual, and to the point. You are not involved in the story emotionally.

At the same time, from other parts of the writing, mainly from the dialogues Ms. Morgan’s brilliance flashes out, so evidently she can write. I wish this story was longer to see this writing style in the characters’ emotions and motivations and in erotica too.

I also would have liked to read more about the dynamics of the relationship of the four of them.

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

See my favorite quotes on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina, from quote 738 to 747.

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REVIEW: Replicant by Dani Worth

Title: Replicant
Series: The Kithran Regenesis #2
Author: Dani Worth
Genre: Science Fiction / Erotica / MMF
Goodreads 

My Rating:

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Blurb

Jarana Gothbrun is the number one Tracker in the galaxies, famous for tagging Replicants-shape-shifting aliens who can take on humanoid forms once they have someone’s DNA. She has two more Replicants to catch in her current job, ones who escaped from a high-security prison planet. Unfortunately, one of them is currently on her home planet, Kithra. She hasn’t been back since a Replicant kidnapped her and took her off planet prior to its destruction.

Maska is engaged to Erik, who has no idea the love of his life is an escaped prisoner. Or male. When Jarana uses an untested device to force Maska’s shift to his native form, it puts him in danger and pisses off everyone on the planet. Her plan to fly in and out with her prisoner is put on hold as she has to deal with the people who’ve come to love Maska. Not to mention her own grief at the destruction of Kithra… and everyone she loved.

Warning: Contains an angsty and sexy gender-bending alien, a confused, angsty and sexy human and an angsty too-tough heroine. Lots of sexy loving and oh, did I mention the ANGST?
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“For some reason these two were getting to me. And one of them wasn’t even awake.”

My Review

In Replicant, the reader gets more detailed information about the planet Kithra, than in the first book, Kithra. It’s essential to understand the agonizing pain and grief of Jarana upon the loss of her home and family.

Featuring secondary characters here (not only the three main characters like in the first book, Kithra) is another positive thing.  I really enjoyed the common past they shared, and the supporting role of them.

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The story
Jarana is a Tracker, hunting down Replicants (shape-shifting aliens) over galaxies. Her current prey is on her home planet, Kithra. It is very hard for her to return, since all of her family died due to the explosions on the planet years ago.

Bombarded by pain, grief and all of her memories, she seeks some distraction, and meets Erik, feeling an immediate lust for him. He feels the same, but he is engaged, so he rejects Jarana.

It soon comes to light that Erik’s fiancée, Maska, is the Replicant Jarana is looking for, and with the deep attraction for each other, things become very complicated for all of them.

The first half of the story is pretty slow, but from the revealing of Maska’s identity the events speed up. Actually speed up too much. Generally, I don’t like first person viewpoint, because usually it can’t give a complete impression of all the characters and the story. I really wanted to know what caused the change of Erik’s behavior and attitude toward Jarana besides caving in to sexual attraction.
It is the same question in the case of Maska as well.

I loved the unique turn of the gender change of Maska, since I haven’t read the blurb before reading (it’s in the blurb!!! but why??? it’s huge!!), I was truly surprised. It gave a nice conflict to the relationship of Erik and Maska.

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The characters
Jarana. Though I really sympathized with her, I didn’t like her. She is too masculine: of course not because of her haircut, but her attitude, way of thinking. She looked tough, but actually she was insecure. And I can’t see the point of leaving the planet and the two men of hers either. Okay, she was scared, but it was much more like running away from her problems.

Erik and Maska. I would love to know more about them, especially how they dealt with the gender change of Maska, but the first person viewpoint made it impossible.

Erotica. Enthralling, intimate, very romantic, but sadly not too much.

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All in all
Replicant is a very original story, with interesting and beautiful scenery and culture. But I felt the depiction of the characters, and their motivations superficial.

See my favorite quotes on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina, from quote 732 to 737.